Friday, May 8, 2009

Attention Advertisers

I know PR people have a hard time with their job. They have to search out places to place their ads and don't have a lot of time to do it. That being said, listen up PR people, if you have not READ my site, don't pretend you have and send me requests to place ads here. One of the first rules of marketing is to know your intended audience. If you have not read my site, how would you know if your product is right for here? Actually if you have looked at my site for more than two seconds you would see that I have a marked absence of ads on my site. I don't even have AdSense for goodness sake. I feel no need to junk up my side bar for seventeen cents and a stick of gum.

Second of all my audience isn't just the people who comment here. My grandmother reads this site, as do two of my aunts, my 16 year old male cousin and my mother's entire office (Hi, Dr. P!) Now, really, some of the ads that have been requested of me to put up on my site are just not family friendly. Others are for sites that are just pure crap (seriously one was for a web design site and seriously I could have designed their website better than they did). Some emails I have received didn't even say what the product was (yeah, cause I am just going to blindly agree).

I also will not do solicited reviews. I know that there is money to be made here (or at least a product to be had), but I don't feel that if I have been given money or the actual product that I could be unbiased. If I didn't like the product I would be feel compelled to lie or stretch the truth in favor of the product. I think my readers deserve more than that. I have in the past done reviews of products, but they were completely unsolicited. I didn't receive anything in return (hell, I don't even know if the companies know I exist).

I did one for Sol-U-Mel. I have a link at the bottom of my page for Badass Designs (owned by Badass Geek), who designed my site. I love Mama Dawg's etsy shop (for all your jewelry and lanyard needs). I also won a beautiful photograph from my buddy Michelle, who has her own photography shop as well.

That being said. I WILL NOT endorse a product that I haven't myself used or don't think is absolutely fabulous. I will not take money or a product in exchange for a review. Don't junk up my email trying to get me to hawk your goods. It won't happen. It is a waste of my time and your time.

27 comments:

Dude, way to tell 'em sister. I too, once in my 30s, have completely lost respect for any kind of bullshit sales tactic. And I love the freedom that comes with telling people like that to "f*ck off". haha.

I tried the AdSense thing for a year or so in earnest, and never earned enough for them to cut a check. Since it's just a number on a Web page unless/until you actually get a check, I guess it's fair to say I've shown their ads 25,000 times and never got a dime for it.

And yet, I still find it kinda interesting to see what ads pop up on some of my posts, especially the weirder ones, so I've kept them at the bottom of the page. But then, I don't have to worry about offending anyone I know in meatspace, so I suppose it's a risk I can take.

I don't mind ads as long as it's not distracting, but you show a lot of integrity. I wouldn't trust paid reviews, either. But it would be nice if you wrote a review and the company actually found it and asked if they could pay you to add it to their site.

I don't have a problem with people putting ads on their blogs as long as it's not too many and the ads fit the subject of their blog. But I got contacted by a travel site for Mexico and a company that sells ski equipment. C'mon, does that really make good sense? One of the most important rules about creating a successful blog is to keep it simple and keep it consistent. I basically tell them that I want to stay true to the content and idea behind my blog and their ad doesn't fit in. No thanks.

I'm with you! I get them all the time. My latest one came from some chick "named" Amethyst Royale, and she was supposedly looking to put up an ad for online campuses or some such crap. She kept e-mailing me, and her offer would go up every time. Her last and apparently final offer was $175a year.

First off, Amethyst, your ridiculous stripper name doesn't exactly make me feel like you're not a scumbag, and $175 to look at some ugly ad for a year is so not worth it to me.

Now, if some of the Golden Goose Dooce ads come-a-callin', then we'll talk ;)